[GNC] "Enter value" (exchange rate?) for multi-currency scheduled transaction

[David Carlson]

That sounds like a bug to me.  I have scheduled stock purchase and sale
transactions that take a manually entered price when SLR is triggered in
release 2.6.19 with no problem.  Perhaps it has already been fixed in the
current release.

On Thu, Aug 6, 2020, 8:39 PM Jim DeLaHunt <list+gnucash at jdlh.com> wrote:

> Hello, folks:
>
> A new multi-currency scheduled transaction in my Gnucash book just
> occurred for the first time. It was confusing. I would like help
> understanding what was going on, and pointers to where the relevant
> documentation and/or source code are. I suspect this may turn into a bug
> report, or more detail on a wiki page, or both.
>
> I just set up a multi-currency subscription: buy a service in US dollars
> (USD), pay with a Canadian dollars (CAD) credit card. This has the
> complication that each month the CAD amount charged will vary with the
> USD-CAD exchange rate. The USD amounts are fixed.
>
> I entered a transaction in GnuCash to record the first payment. This
> transaction divided the amount among three Expense accounts: two USD,
> and one CAD. For a few payments, I duplicated the previous month's
> transaction in the credit card ledger. Before this month's payment, I
> turned last month's transaction into a scheduled transaction. The
> template transaction has six splits: one split to the CAD credit card
> Liability account, two splits to USD Expense accounts, one split to a
> CAD Expense account, and splits to Trading:CURRENCY:CAD and to
> Trading:CURRENCY:USD.
>
> Today, I started GnuCash, and the scheduled transaction ran for the
> first time. In the Since Last Run dialogue, there was an entry for this
> transaction, with a line saying something like:
>
>     CAD -> USD   [(Give value)]
>
> where "[(Give value)]" is a text entry box. (The line might have been
> "USD -> CAD", and the wording might have been different; I didn't
> capture a screenshot.) I tried typing in various numbers into the text
> entry box, and clicking OK for the Since Last Run dialogue. The numbers
> appeared to be discarded each time. I tried typing in the transaction
> value in USD, in CAD, an exchange rate of CAD per 1.00 USD. None of
> these were accepted.
>
> At one point, I typed in 1.00 to the text box, and I also reached past
> the Since Last Run dialogue to open up Tools… Price Database…, and press
> the Get Quotes button, so that Gnucash would have an exchange rate for
> USD per 1 CAD. The Since Last Run dialogue disappeared, and the
> transaction appeared in my ledgers as expected. I selected the CAD
> Expense split and the CAD Liability credit card charge split, and used
> Actions… Edit Exchange Rate to check the exchange rate. They were 1 CAD
> = 1.00 USD.
>
> This was enough to let me edit the transaction. I set the CAD Liability
> credit card charge split to the correct CAD value, set the other CAD
> Expense split to the correct value, and set the Exchange Rates to the
> correct value. I'm comfortable with the per-month adjustments I had to
> make to the new transaction.
>
> What I would like to understand is: Why didn't the Scheduled Transaction
> service simply duplicate the template transaction as a new transaction,
> with the template transaction's existing per-split exchange rates?  What
> value was the Since Last Run dialogue asking me to enter: exchange rate?
> Split amount? Why didn't the dialogue accept the values I was entering?
> Why did it finally work? Did the Get Prices action supply the needed
> value, or did the number I typed provide the value? What is the correct
> way to enter a multi-currency scheduled transaction so that it gets
> created smoothly each time?
>
> Where in the code will I find the functionality that asked for this
> value and created this transaction? I'm happy to read the code to learn
> more. A few searches for keywords like "scheduled transaction", "give
> value", "enter value", etc. returned search hits, but nothing that was
> clearly the applicable code.  I don't see this topic mentioned in the
> Doxygen overviews
> <https://code.gnucash.org/docs/MAINT/index.html#doxylist>.
>
> I didn't see multi-currency issues mentioned in the Scheduled
> Transaction sections of the Concept Guide
> <https://lists.gnucash.org/docs/C/gnucash-guide/chapter_txns.html>, the
> Manual <https://lists.gnucash.org/docs/C/gnucash-help/ch04s06.html>, or
> the Wiki <https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Scheduled_Transactions>. I
> looked for Scheduled Transaction discussions involving multiple
> currencies in the GnuCash-user list archives
> <https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Scheduled_Transactions>. There must be
> some threads there, but I didn't find them.
>
> I am running GnuCash 3.10 on macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra. My book's
> default currency is CAD. I am using currency trading accounts. I expect
> to upgrade to GnuCash 4.1 soon. I didn't take detailed notes and screen
> shots of the problem this time, but the transaction will recur next
> month, and I can make the notes then. I intend to post an update to this
> thread then.
>
> Any suggestions of where to look in the meantime?
>
> Thank you in advance,
>       —Jim DeLaHunt, software engineer, Vancouver, Canada
>
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see
> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information.
> -----
> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>